INTRODUCTION Combination pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation has been shown to be more effective than monotherapy in meta-analyses. We address the question of whether combination pharmacotherapy should be used routinely with smokers or if some types of smokers show little or no benefit from combination pharmacotherapy versus monotherapy. METHODS Two smoking cessation trials were conducted u...

This review presents the pharmacotherapeutic approaches available in the treatment of glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Although its etiology is multi-factorial, currently, the main therapy is to decrease intraocular pressure. New therapies are being developed; the current trend is a retinal ganglion cell neuroprotection. Neuroprotection is achieved by combining antihypertensive agents with drugs ...

Ceftriaxone, a parenteral third generation cephalosporin, was introduced in the United States in 1984. Since that time, it has gained considerable popularity with clinicians providing pediatric health care. With its favorable spectrum of activity, long half-life, ease of administration, and relatively few adverse effects, ceftriaxone has become a frequent choice for empiric antimicrobial therap...

Fluoxetine and its successors (Table 1) differ from the heterocyclic antidepressants in that they inhibit serotonin reuptake, with little or no effect on other receptor sites. As a result of this specificity, these agents are referred to as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Their clinical efficacy is believed to be the result of an initial increase in serotonin concentrations (in...

tatus epilepticus is a serious and potentially life-threatening medical emergency that requires prompt intervention. The traditional definition of status epilepticus is any seizure lasting longer than thirty minutes regardless of whether consciousness is impaired, or recurrent seizures without an intervening period of consciousness between seizures. Clinically, the average seizure is less than ...

BACKGROUND Relatively few studies have examined survival by pharmacotherapy level and the effects of patient characteristics on mortality by pharmacotherapy level in older chronic respiratory disease (CRD) patients. This study aimed to investigate these issues in older (> or = 65) CRD patients in Western Australia. METHODS We identified 108,312 patients > or = 65 years with CRD during 1992-20...

BACKGROUND Randomized trials with antidepressants are often run under double blind placebo-controlled conditions, whereas those with psychotherapies are mostly unblinded. This can introduce bias in favor of psychotherapy when the treatments are directly compared. In this meta-analysis, we examine this potential source of bias. METHODS We searched Pubmed, PsycInfo, Embase and the Cochrane data...

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder characterized by a recurrent course. Schizophrenia generates huge health and economic burdens and requires a long-lasting treatment. Nevertheless, there are still few detailed analyses of costs of pharmacotherapy used in hospitalization of patients with schizophrenia. Thus, the main aim of this study was to assess and compare expenditure related to pha...